Merge pull request #1 from carsdotcom/initial-commit

Initial commit

.gitignore

@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 node_modules/
 npm-debug.log
 yarn-error.log
+.idea/
+.ackrc
 
 # Laravel 4 specific
 bootstrap/compiled.php

README.md

@@ -1,2 +1,19 @@
 # php-request-class
 Structure the logic around Guzzle API requests into object-oriented classes
+
+## What?
+We maintain an application that is reliant on dozens of REST APIs, most of which do not have SDKs.
+
+We love [Guzzle](https://github.com/guzzle/guzzle)! But most of the documentation assumes that making a request is "easy," just a few lines of code.
+
+But we've discovered in our own use that the structure around that Guzzle request can run into hundreds of lines, 
+managing pre-requisites like authentication, converting data between our internal types and our partners' types, etc.
+
+So we created `AbstractRequest` as a standardized way to:
+1. Organize logic into classes.
+2. Provide swappable traits for encoding and decoding (XML, JSON, forms, even simplified GraphQL!)
+3. Log *everything* using Laravel's File facade
+4. Cache using Laravel's Cache facade (with a simple automatic cache key generator)
+5. Provide a structure for chainable prerequisites (like authentication)
+6. Provide a structure for catching exceptions and parsing responses back into your internal logic
+7. Let you defer decisions about call order or synchronous/asynchronous processing to the user of the request class